Happy Valentine's Day!

Each edition of Crusader for Love thus far has featured a new crusade, specific to that year and place. But this year, you'll notice, there's not so much a crusade as a pause between crusades to regroup and reevaluate. That's what I'm doing with myself these days: taking a leave of absence from the grad program, exploring other fields and interests, developing myself as a person.

It's quite strange, after so many years as a student, to find myself suddenly not in school full-time. Often it's a challenge not to just drift day by day. But other times, I feel a little inkling of who I might be, if unfettered by others' ideas and expectations. It's very scary. But it's also exciting, to imagine that such a person might come to exist fully if I just give her enough faith and encouragement.

This year, the big thing I've learned about "doing what I love" is that finding this love can lead me into totally foreign waters... but that that's the best part of the journey! So here's to love in all its strange and glorious forms: new loves, old loves, and the loves that are yet to come. Go out and find some love, share some love, feel the love and be the love in your own life!